Moodle (acronym for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) is an open source Learning Management System (LMS) or a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). It is rising in popularity among the educators around the world, as a tool for creating

dynamic websites for students. It is open source, since it is customizable, has no contracts or user costs to pay and is widely available for free use. It can be efficiently integrated with your management system and allows you to support personalized learning, which is effective even outside the classroom and encourages the involvement of the broader community of the institution.

Moodle has constantly maintained its top spot among the LMS tools and has been ranked 11th overall among the top 100 tools for learning in 2013. Many factors have contributed to Moodle being highly successful. On top of being a great LMS, it is also free to use. Teachers can teach their own online courses using this and find it stable and easy to use and being customizable, it fits to its user’s needs with ease.

Moodle has several advantages over other LMSs, here’s the list of a few:

It is an open source learning platform, which is utilized by millions of people worldwide. This open source nature allows anybody to tinker with its code or add new things. Users can share changes with the Moodle community for others to use for free. All this leads to the extension and reformation of the software.

It makes use of simple technologies, as a result of which its developers are easy to find.

It is built on some of the most reliable technologies, such as PHP, MySQL, Apache.

It has a fully cooperative development model which offers constant scope for improvement by allowing many high quality contributions to acquire new modules, features and enhancements.

It makes use of the more advanced programming approach, the object-oriented programming which makes its functionality all the more efficient and allows users to proceed at their own pace, as well as customize it according to their needs.

It focuses on making the learning and teaching experience constructivist. This process encourages the involvement of learners in the learning process, rather than letting them receive knowledge passively. The learning environment becomes more democratic with interactive and student-centered activities.

It is convenient for educational institutions and organizations for learning and course management.

It can be quickly deployed in your organization, without the requirement of any extra efforts.

It is highly cost-effective, since it has a low risk startup and a low initial investment.

It provides you with fast and reliable updates of information.

It provides you with regular support, all the time you use it. Its support feature is active twenty four hours a day, seven days a week and addresses to its developers, members and users.

The feature of Moodle that stands out is its being open source in nature which proves to be more reliable with bigger support communities and faster updates. Also, the system is easy to use because of the familiar graphical user interface due to which a lot of its functions are aimed towards student learning and the system is designed with educators in mind. Teachers are provided with many features using which they can boost their students’ learning. It is designed to simplify classes as well as training management. It has a vast range of other benefits and is very cost effective.

Moreover, the system is highly secure, and you can be sure that your resources will be safeguarded within it. It also ascertains peer review together with the capability to modify codes. It is a flexible platform that comes with different tools and well-tested plug-ins and updates. By choosing this online learning system, you could connect to students all over the globe because the system is also available in different languages, which is a great way to boost learning that is based on local preferences.

While being primarily designed for a higher education environment such as a university, the Moodle learning management system has rapidly been used across a wide range of organizations all over the world to conduct courses completely online or to support actual learning and teaching. The flexibility, modularity, security and free availability of the platform have drawn learning communities that range from single primary classrooms to big businesses, universities, government agencies and many more places where people could learn.

Join the Moodle community and avail of its services to experience a positive revolution in your current educational practices. Share your views and further knowledge on the same. The Comment Box awaits you.

About the Author

Author: Saomya Saxena

Educational technology blogger, loves to research and write about tools and tips for educators on how to integrate technology into everyday instruction creatively and effectively. Fond of reading and writing.

EdTechReview (ETR) is a community of and for everyone involved in education technology to connect and collaborate both online and offline to discover, learn, utilize and share about the best ways technology can improve learning, teaching, and leading in the 21st century.

EdTechReview spreads awareness on education technology and its role in 21st century education through best research and practices of using technology in education, and by facilitating events, training, professionaldevelopment, and consultation in its adoption and implementation.

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